Wheelchair basketball is one of several sports the Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation promotes. Others include sled hockey, power soccer, wheelchair lacrosse, and wheelchair curling. Courtesy of the Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation

Cheers To A Good Cause

The month of March offers beer lovers the chance to support adaptive athletes while sipping local brews.

It was early on Thursday morning when Tim Myers, owner of Strange Craft Beer Company, answered the phone. Whatever the small-business owner was busy with at the time was put on hold—this call was about the Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation. Myers has been involved with the CASF for about nine years. This month, through multiple fundraising efforts with local breweries, he hopes to raise thousands of dollars for the CASF.

“When it comes to the Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation, I always have time to talk,” Myers says.

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Myers remembers taking his son, Casey, who has been paralyzed since birth, to a birthday party at an ice rink. As the other kids laced up their skates and shuffled over to the ice, Colorado Adaptive Sports Foundation executive director Corey Fairbanks made his way toward the four-year-old Casey. He was carrying hockey sleds. Before long, Myers’ son was cruising up and down the ice while the other kids struggled to stay upright in their skates. “[Adaptive sports] opened up a whole new world,” Myers says, “For us and our son.”

Each year, hundreds of Coloradans participate in adaptive sports through the CASF. This small nonprofit provides an outlet for sports such as sled hockey, wheelchair basketball, power soccer, and more. It also has a program for veterans, the Warrior Avs Sled Hockey Team. This month, you can provide support to the CASF through fundraisers—and enjoy a refreshing local brew at the same time.

Strange Craft Beer Company will be putting on a month-long fundraiser to benefit the CASF and its efforts to bring adaptive sports to Coloradans. It will donate about 17 percent of its profits—that’s $1 off each beer sold—to the CASF and the Rolling Nuggets, which is the wheelchair basketball team associated with CASF.

Myers’ brewery will also be extending a special welcome to anyone who’s in the area for the West Coast Conference Basketball Championship, which takes place on March 4–5 at Gold Crown Fieldhouse in Lakewood and is hosted by the Rolling Nuggets. Anyone looking to support the Rolling Nuggets can head out straight from the brewery, which is about a seven-minute walk from the stadium.

The day after St. Patrick’s Day, make your way over to The Brew on Broadway for the third annual Denver Rye Fest. The festival is the culmination of efforts from 11 Denver breweries, including Strange Craft Beer Company. Paul Webster, the general manager at The Brew on Broadway, says nearly all the festival’s profits will go toward the CASF. The only money they won’t donate is what they use to pay for the glasses, the tickets, and printing.

Sure, the good cause should be enough to bring anyone into the brewery, but it also doesn’t hurt that several rye beers have been concocted specifically for the festival. This includes a Black Scottish Rye Stout, an Oatmeal Rye Brown, a Double Red Rye IPA (a collaboration of all 11 breweries, by the way), and more.